KolabBW III

Project Aims

The “KoLabBW III” project is a collaborative initiative involving several universities and research institutions in Baden-Württemberg. Partners include the University of Stuttgart with the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) and the Visualization Institute (VISUS), the University of Ulm with the Visual Computing Research Group (VisCom), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) with the Institute for Information Management in Engineering (IMI), Mannheim University of Applied Sciences with the Competence Center for Virtual Engineering Rhein-Neckar (KVE), and Albstadt-Sigmaringen University with the Institute for Computer-Aided Product Development (IRGP).

The goal of the project is to sustainably establish the use of Virtual and Augmented Reality in science, education, and industry. Its main focus is on developing collaborative virtual scenarios that enable and enhance remote colaboration. KoLabBW III specifically supports interdisciplinary research projects within the framework of the InnovationCampus Future Mobility (ICM). Another key aspect is the development of an open service infrastructure for XR applications at the participating universities, as well as the creation and provision of training materials for users. By integrating digital twins, real processes and systems can be experienced virtually, thereby opening up new applications in research, teaching, and industrial practice. The project aims for the long-term implementation of its results and actively promotes the transfer of knowledge to society.

Project Achievements

• Developed over 20 different virtual scenarios for different partners from industry, academia and arts.
• Created outreach by presenting project results at over 15 public events like XR Expo and ICM Days and on several conferences
• Improved collaborative functionality of our open-source XR-Tools e.g. with video conferencing support
• Created traning resources and documentation and published 19 papers.

Future Objectives

We aim to extend work done in KoLabBW through follow-up initiatives within related HPC and XR-focused research programs.